39 die in Newfoundland plane crash (10-3-46)

1

The Evening Star (October 3, 1946)

39 are found dead after plane falls in Newfoundland wilds

Worst air disaster occurs when airliner burns after takeoff

BULLETIN

STEPHENVILLE, Newfoundland (AP) – A search party which reached the wreckage of an American Overseas Airlines plane today messaged that there were no survivors among the 31 passengers and eight crewmen. In New York, the Coast Guard said helicopters were en route here, 10 miles from the crash, to take airline, Coast Guard and Army officials to the scene.

NEW YORK (AP) – An American Overseas Airlines plane with 39 persons aboard – three of them infants – plunged in flames into the wilderness of Western Newfoundland early today in what may be the greatest tragedy in the history of commercial aviation.

The Coast Guard reported that the possibility of survivors was very remote. Six of the passengers were children, 12 were women.

The four-engine DC-4, en route from New York to Berlin, crashed 10 minutes after it left Stephenville, Newfoundland, at 3:24 a.m., striking a hillside 10 miles from Harmon Field, where it refueled because the Gander airport was closed in with rain and fog. The ceiling at Harmon Field was 5,000 feet and visibility was 10 miles.

Three persons at scene

The Coast Guard, in a radio message sent at 9:48 a.m., said three persons, believed to be Newfoundland civilians, were at the scene and an Army searching party was at the foot of the hill into which the plane crashed.

The message said the searching party had one-half mile to go. The plane crashed 100 feet from the top of the hill, which is covered with rocks and scrub trees.

The message, sent from a Coast Guard plane at the scene, said the airliner appeared to have exploded after the crash and that only a tiny fragment of the ship was visible. There was a heavy rain at the time.

It was the second plane tragedy in the Newfoundland wilds in two weeks. On September 18, a Belgian Sabena airliner crashed near Gander, killing 27 of the 44 aboard.

Stephenville is on the west coast of Newfoundland, 921 air miles from New York and approximately 225 miles west of Gander.

No sign of life

An Air France Transport captain, who flew over the wreckage two hours after the crash, said on arrival at New York that the plane burned completely and there was no sign of life nearby.

The Air France captain, Jacques Charmoz, said he was at Gander, Newfoundland, 225 miles from the scene of the crash, when it occurred.

“I could see the glow of the explosion before I took off,” he said, “after the takeoff we circled the wreck. The plane hit the side of a hill quite high up and was still smoking.

“The light was poor and I could not identify any part of the plane. I saw a burnt spot on the hillside. It is a fairly wooded hill. I could see no path cut through the trees. The plane probably went straight into the hill.”

Capt. Charmoz said the 42 persons in his plane, 12 of them women, caught a glimpse of the wreckage.

Another description of the wreckage was given by Robert Albee of Forest Hills, New York, navigator on the French plane.

“Our plane circled the wreck at 1,500 feet,” Albee related. “I could not see the actual fire, but the whole plane was smoldering. The fire had died down quite a bit, but there still was a glow.”

The navigator said PBYs were landing four or five miles from the wreckage.

B-17 and helicopter sent

At Gander, officials of the airline said rescue planes which flew over the area reported the wreckage still was burning four hours after the crash.

The Coast Guard dispatched a B-17 and a helicopter from Argentia, Newfoundland.

There have been three 27-victim plane crashes in American commercial aviation. In addition to the Sabena crash, other such crashes involved an American Airline plane at San Diego, Califronia, March 3, 1946, and a nonscheduled Viking Airline plunge near Richmond, Virginia, last May 16.

One airline employee narrowly missed being aboard the plane when it crashed today. He was George MacCall of Newark, New Jersey, who was co-navigator and the ninth member of the crew. He left the ship at Stephenville.

The special assistant to the commanding general for search and rescue of the Atlantic Division of the Air Transport Command reported at Fort Totten, New York, that paratroopers from the 18th Air Transport Command at Presque Isle, Maine, and Goose Bay, Labrador, were speeding to Harmon Field, to take part in the search and necessary rescue work.

Nineteen of the passengers were booked for Frankfurt, Germany; nine from New York to Berlin and three from New York to Amsterdam, Holland.

Passenger list given

American Overseas Airlines announced the list of passengers of the DC-4.

The passengers are those who boarded the plane at La Guardia Field yesterday morning en route to Stephenville. The company explained that some passengers may have debarked on landing at the Newfoundland port.

The list follows:

  • Ethel Agnes Miessler, 47, Wichita, Kansas, housewife.
  • Harriet van Houten, 21, Yonkers, New York, housewife.
  • Janet van Houten, 6 months, Yonkers, New York.
  • Joseph Percy, 32, Woodmere, Long Island, New York, chemist.
  • John Simmons, 33, Richmond, Virginia, film operator.
  • Claire Zane, 43, Seattle, analyst.
  • Rudolph Zane, 42, Seattle, analyst.
  • William Lotze, 46, Burbank, California, analyst.
  • Ludwig Valik, 46, Morganville, New Jersey, chemist.
  • Benjamin Robert Alpert, 32, New York, executive.
  • Helen Kent Downing, 26, Thomson, Georgia.
  • Laurie Elizabeth Downing, 4 years old, Thomson, Georgia.
  • Barbara Kent Downing, 20 months, Thomson, Georgia.
  • Alva J. Marley, 46, Long Beach, California, executive.
  • Dorothy Gertrude McCormick, 26, Lebanon, Missouri, housewife.
  • Frank Schmidt, 11, Kenosha, Wisconsin.
  • Ruth Schmidt, 36, housewife, same address.
  • Rudolph Max Goepp, 30, Wilmington, Delaware, chemist.
  • Alda Boyd Stabler, 33, Bellwood, Pennsylvania, housewife.

The company said the above 19 passengers were booked from New York to Frankfurt, Germany.

Group going to Berlin

  • Virginia Edwards Bellanger, 21, housewife, Kingston, New Jersey.
  • Caroline Smith Crawford, 23, housewife, New York.
  • Margo C. Crawford, 3 months old, same address.
  • Edward Steuber, 37, the Bronx, New York, government employee.
  • Vera C. Himes, 47, 4429 38th Street North, Arlington, Virginia, housewife.
  • Lucy Jean Hawkins, 3 years old, formerly 410 Rosemary Lane, Falls Church, Virginia.
  • Elizabeth Eastman Hawkins, 34, housewife, formerly 410 Rosemary Lane, Falls Church, Virginia.
  • Mary Jane Merrill, 32, Farmington, Missouri, housewife.
  • Horace Eastburn Thompson, 32, Philadelphia, expediter.

The above nine passengers were booked from New York to Berlin.

  • John Snell, 55, St. Gabriel. California, superintendent.
  • Otto Stem, 56, New York City, executive.
  • Albert Butler Ritts, New Rochelle, New York, director.

The above three were booked from New York to Amsterdam, Holland.

Crew members listed

The company listed these crew members:

  • Capt. William Westerfield, pilot, Patchogue, New York.
  • Robert B. Lehr, co-pilot, Middle Village, New York.
  • John Tierney, navigation officer, Jamaica, New York.
  • Jerome Lewis, navigation officer, Long Beach, New York.
  • James M. Barry, flight commission officer, Kingston, Pennsylvania.
  • Mark Spelar, flight engineer, Jackson Heights, New York City.
  • Herbert Ewing, purser, Jackson Heights, New York City.
  • Margaret Burleigh, stewardess, Jackson Heights.

Ewing was born in Greensburg, Indiana; Spelar in Josephine, Pennsylvania; Barry in Chester, Pennsylvania, and the other crew members in New York City, the company said.

A number of the passengers aboard the transport were, wives enroute to join American government and military officials in Germany. Some had children.

Mrs. Richard van Houten, 21, and her six-month-old daughter Janet, were enroute to Germany to join Lt. van Houten, who had never seen his daughter. Lt. and Mrs. van Houten were married on June 7, 1945, while he was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia. He is a graduate of West Point.

Mrs. Alda B. Stabler of Bellwood, Pennsylvania, was enroute to Anspach, Germany, to join her husband, Army Lt. James Stabler. The couple met in Washington, where she was employed in a government office, and were married in March 1944 at Miami Beach, Florida.

Mrs. Helen Kent Downing of Thompson, Georgia, and her two children were en route to Germany to join her husband, George Downing, an official of the Coco-Cola Co. Mr. Downing, former manager of the company’s plant at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, went abroad six weeks ago.

Mrs. Ethel Agnes Miessler, 47, was en route to join her husband, Edwin G. Miessler, a regional accountant for the American Red Cross at Bad Wildingen, near Frankfurt. A daughter, Miss Arlene Meade, lives in Wichita, Kansas. Two sons are in service – Robert Meade, a fireman first class with the Navy in the Pacific, and Lt. George E. Meade with the Army, stationed at Tampa, Florida.

Mrs. Ruth Lansdowne Schmidt, 36, and her son, Frank Jr., 11, were en route to join their husband and father, Frank Schmidt, who is stationed in Germany with the Army. Mr. Schmidt, employed by the export division of Coca Cola Co., has been in Germany as an Army technical adviser for 18 months.

Mrs. Virginia E. Bellanger of Kingston, New Jersey, was on her way to join her husband Frederick in Berlin where he is on duty with the Army, her parents reported.

2

The Pittsburgh Press (October 3, 1946)

39 DIE IN ATLANTIC PLANE CRASH
Airliner rams hillside in Newfoundland

Worst commercial flying disaster

STEPHENVILLE, Newfoundland (UP) – A trans-Atlantic plane exploded against a hillside 12 miles east of here early today, killing all of the 39 persons aboard.

A ground rescue party which fought its way through a wilderness to the scene of the crash of the American Overseas Airlines’ DC-4 reported by radio to Harmon Field here that there were no survivors.

Hope had been abandoned hours before that any of those aboard the four-engined AOA flagship “Erie” had survived, as air observers reported the explosion and fire which followed the crash had left only small fragments of the plane.

Worst commercial tragedy

It was the worst tragedy in the history of commercial aviation. In each of two previous crashes 27 have died.

Most of those aboard the airliner were Americans, a number of them wives and children of Americans in Germany, who were flying to join their men.

The plane, en route from New York to Berlin, had landed to refuel here, because Gander, Newfoundland, 160 miles away, was weathered in.

Gander was the scene two weeks ago yesterday of the crash of a Sabena (Belgian) Airlines plane, in which 27 died.

Seen from field tower

Sgt. James Johnson, of the public relations section of the Air Transport Command here, said the Harmon Field tower crew and others watched the big plane make a normal takeoff, under a 5,000-foot ceiling, just before 3:30 a.m.

Then they watched in horror as it plunged into the rocky hillside, only 100 feet below the crest of a 1,900-foot elevation, 12 miles from the field.

The plane exploded, Sgt. Johnson said, and flames shot into the sky.

There was no way to tell, Sgt. Johnson said, why the plane failed to gain enough altitude to clear the hill. He said the weather was clear enough so that the pilot’s vision could not have been obscured.

Ground rescue parties set out at once to fight their way through the wooded terrain to the crashed plane.

One party reached it six hours after the crash. It was then that air observers from the party’s visual signals concluded that none of the 28 adult passengers, three babies, and eight crewmen had survived.

One of the passengers, according to the airline, was Alda B. Stabler, 29, of Bellwood, Blair County, Pennsylvania. She was en route to Anspach, Germany, to join her husband, Lt. James Stabler. Mrs. Stabler spent last weekend with her mother, Mrs. Gertrude Boyd, at Bellwood, which is near Altoona.

Jack Shelley, operations manager of American Overseas Airlines here, returning from a flight over the crash scene, said the plane was “burned beyond recognition.”

Off just in time

The crash toll might well have been 40 instead of 39. George McGall of Newark, New Jersey, and AOA crewman, was aboard the plane as a “dead-head” from New York to Stephenville, but left it here. His name at first was included in the list of dead.

A Coast Guard helicopter, which successfully rescued 18 survivors of the Sabena crash at Gander two weeks ago, was en route here, but it was doubted that it could land in the rugged area of the crash – a wilderness of rocks and scrubby trees.

The crash occurred at 3:34 a.m., less than 10 minutes after the plane had taken off from Harmon Field.

One of the victims of the crash was a six-month-old girl whose father never had seen her. Janet Van Hoten and her mother, Mrs. Harriet Van Hoten, 21, of Yonkers, New York, were en route to Frankfurt, Germany, to join Lt. Richard Van Hoten, who left for occupation duty six months before his child was born.

Also on the plane were Mrs. Helen Downing of Thompson, Georgia, and her two children, aged 2 and 4. They were on their way to join Mr. Downing, who is connected with the Coca-Cola Co. at Frankfurt, Germany,

3

The Evening Star (October 4, 1946)

Air officials puzzled by cause of airliner’s Newfoundland crash

GANDER, Newfoundland (AP) – Aviation officials were at a loss today to explain the crash of a Berlin-bound American Overseas Airlines plane in which 39 persons lost their lives yesterday in the Newfoundland wilderness.

A board of investigators from the Civil Aeronautics Administration awaited the arrival of a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter in which they planned to visit the scene of the crash, which occurred about 10 minutes after the doomed plane took off from Harmon Field near Stephenville. The disaster was the worst in commercial airlines history.

A rescue party of U.S. Army personnel and a doctor, who rushed to the scene soon after the crash occurred, reported that all 31 passengers and 8 crew members were burned beyond recognition. The passengers included six children ranging from three months to 11 years old and their mothers. Nine of the twelve women aboard were en route to join their husbands – most of them with occupation troops abroad.

Made emergency landing

The four-engined DC-4 crashed and burned about 12 miles from Harmon Field, where it had made an emergency landing due to bad weather at Gander Airport, sprawling international air terminal on the other side of the island.

The giant Sky master, which began its journey from New York, had landed at Harmond Field at 3 p.m. EST Wednesday to refuel and give the crew a 12-hour rest. Under normal weather conditions it would have refueled at Gander Airport, but the base was closed in by rain and fog.

The crash occurred shortly after 3 a.m. EST Thursday in a highly inaccessible wooded area traversed by a 1,200-foot-high range of the table mountains.

Lt. Fletcher Brown Jr., Coast Guard helicopter pilot from the air sea rescue base at Argentia, flew through a gale to Gander last night and then took off for Harmon Field, but stormy weather forced him down at Buchans, about halfway to his destination.

Landed at hamlet

Lt. Brown, whose home is at Gloucester, Massachusetts, followed the railroad tracks insofar as possible, but had to land at an isolated hamlet en route to find his way.

“I got lost once,” he said, “and stopped at a little cabin to ask for directions. The people spoke French and I couldn’t make them understand. Finally by pointing to the map I made them understand that I wanted to know where I was. They told me I was in Newfoundland.”

Lt. Brown made the trip alone in a two-seated craft, the other seat filled with three 5-gallon cans of 90-octane gasoline. He had to stop and refuel en route. He expected to reach Harmon Field before noon today.

4

Another Washingtonian listed as crash victim

Mrs. Alda B. Stabler, 29, of 1841 R St. N.W., has been added to the list of Washington area residents killed in the crash of an American Overseas airliner yesterday in Newfoundland In which 39 persons perished.

Four from the Washington area were on board the plane. The other three were Mrs. Vera Himes, 4429 38th St. North, Arlington, and Mrs. Elizabeth Hawkins, formerly of 410 Rosemary Lane, Falls Church, and her three-year-old daughter, Lucy Jean.

Mrs. Stabler, the wife of Lt. James Stabler, a former District policeman now stationed in Germany, was on the way to rejoin her husband, friends said. She left Washington Friday for her family home in Bellwood, Pennsylvania, preparatory to taking the flight.

Mrs. Stabler had turned down a chance to go by ship last January in order to go by air, friends said. For a number of years, she was employed as an interviewer with the Personnel Employment Center, 1300 block of G Street N.W. Her husband; who was formerly stationed at the 11th precinct while a policeman, has been in Germany since June of this year.

Also on the plane were seven Commerce Department representatives and a United Nations Rehabilitation and Relief Authority official, Benjamin Alpert of New York.

5

The Pittsburgh Press (October 4, 1946)

Probe begins of plane crash into hill in which 39 died

Airliner failed to clear top by 75 feet

STEPHENVILLE, Newfoundland (UP) – Officials of the Newfoundland government and American Overseas Airlines began today the gruesome task of sifting the wreckage of a trans-Atlantic airliner.

They sought to determine if possible why it crashed into a hillside, killing 39 persons aboard.

It was the second disaster on the trans-Atlantic run within 15 days and the worst accident in commercial aviation since the German dirigible Hindenburg exploded at Lakehurst, New Jersey, May 6, 1937, killing 36 persons.

The crash occurred early yesterday when the four-engined Douglas transport “Erie” plunged into the side of a 1,900-foot hill 12 miles east of Harmon Field, The plane, bound for Berlin, had taken off a few minutes earlier after a refueling stop at Harmon Field.

The investigators sought to determine principally why Capt. William Westerfield of Patchogue, New York, pilot of the ship, had failed to gain sufficient altitude to clear the hill. The plane crashed about 75 feet from the top. All occupants were burned beyond recognition.

Officials said they had not determined whether the bodies of the victims would be returned to the United States for burial. But in view of the rough terrain in which the crash occurred, it was believed they would be buried near the scene of the wreck.

All of the victims were Americans. Fourteen women, including the hostess, Margaret Burleigh, 22, New York City, were killed in the crash. Many of the women were en route to Germany to join their husbands. Five of them were accompanied by children.

6

The Evening Star (October 5, 1946)

Mass funeral rites for 39 in air crash to be held tomorrow

STEPHENVILLE, Newfoundland (AP) – Mass funeral services will be held tomorrow, in an airplane flying over the scene of the worst commercial aviation disaster in history, for the 39 persons who perished Thursday in the crash of an American Overseas Airline transport.

Protestant, Catholic and Jewish clergymen will conduct the services as their plane circles the scene. The victims will be buried in a mass grave.

A similar service was conducted from an aircraft flying over the wreckage of a Belgian Sabena Airliner which crashed near Gander airport September 18 causing the death of 27 persons.

Probers sift crash ashes

Veteran investigators of the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board sifted bits and pieces of the four-engined airliner to attempt to learn why the craft hurtled head-on into a 1,200-foot wall of rock.

“It is the worst in my 37 years’ experience,” said George Gay, regional CAB chief, after visiting the scene of the tragedy.

From eyewitness accounts and the flame-fused remnants of the American Overseas airliner, the probers fashioned this version of the crash, the worst in commercial aviation history: The plane was a DC-4 Douglas Skymaster. It had stopped overnight at Harmon Field on the southwestern coast of Newfoundland because tot bad weather at Gander Airport, across the island.

A crew of eight and 31 passengers were aboard. The tanks had been piled with 2,900 gallons of high-octane gasoline for the long overseas hop to Shannon, Eire.

Craft rose normally

The ship took off at 5:30 a.m., Newfoundland time, about 30 minutes before dawn. The ceiling was 5,000 feet, with 10 miles’ visibility.

The plane used a runway pointing in a northeasterly direction toward a range of rock-capped mountains eight miles distant, which range up to 1,200 and 1,500 feet.

Ground crews watched the craft rise normally, with an estimated 150 feet of altitude before it reached the end of the runway. The ship continued to gain altitude and held to a straight course. Suddenly a great billow of flame flared into the sky and cascaded down the stone face of the mountain. There had been no indication the ship had been in trouble.

Lt. Robert A. Nolan of Dunn Loring, Virginia, fire marshal at Hannon, left immediately in a crash truck with eight Newfoundland firemen and Sgt. Glen Baker of Oklahoma City.

Walked eight miles

“The sky was so red and the flame was so big we thought it was very near,” he said. “But we had to walk eight miles after we left the truck.”

Led by a Newfoundland hunting guide familiar with mountain trails in the vicinity, Lt. Nolan and his party reached the wreck in 3½ hours.

“We could only find two bodies, one was a man the other a woman. She had a purse and there was a handkerchief with Peggy on it,” Nolan said.

The bodies have been identified as Joseph Percy of Woodmere, New York, and Helen Kent Downing of Thomson, Georgia.

“There just wasn’t a trace of anyone else,” said Nolan, gesturing blankly with his hands. “It was awful. Just little bits of fused metal and that big black smear against the rock.

“Two sacks of mail had been thrown quite a way from the plane. They weren’t even scorched. There was a half-burned suitcase full of baby clothes.”

6 children among passengers

The passengers included six youngsters ranging in age from 11 years to 3 months, bound with their mothers for Frankfurt and Berlin, presumably to join soldier husbands in the Occupation Army in Germany.

Flight experts calculating the ship’s altitude and distance from the takeoff point estimated the speed at 150 miles per hour.

“It seemed to have hit just under the lip of the cliff,” Lt. Nolan said. “About 50 feet more and the plane would have been clear.”

7

Editorial: Safety in the air

The shocking air crash near Stephenville, Newfoundland, coming so soon after the Gander tragedy, should serve to intensify efforts of aviation experts to reduce the hazards which still beset those who travel by air. Statistics invariably are quoted after such disasters to show that, considering the number of miles flown, the accident rate on commercial airlines is decreasing. But while the number of crashes undoubtedly is small, compared with the number of flights made, the unfortunate fact remains that as planes grow larger and the number of passengers per plane increases, the potential number of casualties per crash is likely to go higher and higher.

There have been three 27-victim plane accidents this year on this side of the Atlantic, and now comes the highest toll in the history of commercial aviation.

Despite many disheartening setbacks, aviation is making tremendous progress in the field of safety. Planes are steadily being improved and so are airways and airports. Air safety has become a world problem with the development and expansion of overseas airlines, and the problem is to be attacked on an international level with establishment of the International Civil Aviation Organization, of which the United States will be a member. Because of its very nature, flying will continue to have its hazards, but constant research inevitably will serve to make the skyways safer for the aerial cross-country and overseas travelers of the future.

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The Pittsburgh Press (October 5, 1946)

Plane crash victims to be buried at scene

STEPHENVILLE, Newfoundland (UP) – The 39 persons who were killed when an American Overseas Airlines trans-Atlantic plane crashed near here Thursday will be buried on the mountainside near the scene of the disaster, worst in the history of commercial aviation.

Funeral services will be conducted tomorrow from a plane circling over the rugged area in which the big DC-4 went down and exploded.